36 die in blast as Syria state forces prepare major assault

Residents of Sarmada, Syria, examine the site where two five-story buildings collapsed in an explosion. A monitoring group said an arms depot in the basement of a building had detonated.

Residents of Sarmada, Syria, examine the site where two five-story buildings collapsed in an explosion. A monitoring group said an arms depot in the basement of a building had detonated.

Photo: Omar Haj Kadour / AFP / Getty Images

Photo: Omar Haj Kadour / AFP / Getty Images

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Residents of Sarmada, Syria, examine the site where two five-story buildings collapsed in an explosion. A monitoring group said an arms depot in the basement of a building had detonated.

Residents of Sarmada, Syria, examine the site where two five-story buildings collapsed in an explosion. A monitoring group said an arms depot in the basement of a building had detonated.

Photo: Omar Haj Kadour / AFP / Getty Images

36 die in blast as Syria state forces prepare major assault

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BEIRUT — An explosion in northern Syria killed at least 36 people Sunday and wounded many others, but the cause of the blast wasn’t immediately known, opposition activists said.

The opposition-run Syrian Civil Defense, first responders also known as the White Helmets, said the blast occurred in the village of Sarmada near the Turkish border, killing 36 people and wounding many others. The explosion collapsed two five-story buildings, burying many of the victims, it said.

An opposition media collective known as the Smart news agency, said the dead included civilians as well as members of the al Qaeda-linked Levant Liberation Committee.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said an arms depot in the basement of a building had detonated. It said the depot was run by an arms dealer close to the Levant Liberation Committee.

Meanwhile, Syrian government forces fighting rebels in Idlib province have sent more reinforcements ahead of a potential offensive on the last major rebel stronghold in Syria.

The pro-government Al-Watan daily said Sunday that huge military reinforcements have reached the outskirts of Idlib province as a preliminary step to launch a wide-scale offensive.

Quoting military sources, the paper said troops have reached the northern countryside of the neighboring Hama province as part of preparations to recapture Idlib province.

The expected offensive on Idlib comes after government forces captured major rebel strongholds earlier this year near the capital Damascus and in the southern provinces of Daraa and Quneitra.

The paper said the battle would be “comprehensive” starting from Hama’s northern countryside to the southern countryside of Aleppo, adding that the target of the battle is to seize the city of Idlib.

Government air strikes on the province on Friday killed dozens.

Pro-government activists said on social media that the elite Tiger Force, led by Brig. Gen. Suheil al-Hassan, arrived in northern Syria to spearhead what they called the “Dawn of Idlib” operation.

Fears have been building for days of the government offensive against the last major bastion for the opposition. U.N. agencies have warned a campaign to capture Idlib would aggravate an already dire humanitarian situation.

Food, water and medicine are already in short supply in the largely rural province, which is now home to over 1 million Syrians displaced from their homes by government offensives in other parts of the country, said UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency.

Some 350,000 children, many already living in refugee camps, are at risk of displacement in the event of war, said the agency.

The UNICEF statement said that across Idlib “there are more than 1 million children: exhausted of war, fearful of uncertainty, violence and further displacement.”

Syria’s government dropped leaflets across the province Thursday, urging residents to reconcile with its rule.